Crypto Markets See Mild Downturn, Bitcoin Holds Near $3,800

Friday, Jan. 3 — after crypto markets tipped back into red yesterday, most cryptocurrencies are today seeing some further corrections. All of the top twenty coins by market cap are seeing tempered losses on the day, as data from CoinMarketCap shows.

Top cryptocurrency Bitcoin (BTC), a day after the tenth anniversary of its genesis block, is down over 2 percent over the 24 hours to press time, and is currently trading around $3,798. The coin has failed to break back above the $4,000 price point, despite several bursts of growth over the course of the past week — and has largely traded range bound between $3,800 – $3,900.

Bitcoin is up about 3.5 percent on the week. One month ago, Bitcoin was trading around $4,000, and is down around 5.4 percent to press time.

Ethereum (ETH) — which this week reclaimed its former ranking as largest altcoin by market cap — is seeing almost no change on the day to press time, trading at about $150. With a market cap of $15.6 billion, the asset is continuing to inch further ahead of second-largest altcoin by market cap Ripple (XRP), which has a market cap of $14.5 billion to press time, according to CoinMarketCap data.

Positive news has been forthcoming for the asset, with Estonian digital trading platform DX Exchange set to offer fully EU-regulated, tokenized stocks on the Ethereum blockchain next week, using Nasdaq’s Financial Information exchange (FIX) protocol to deliver the product.

Ethereum is a bullish 28 percent in the green on its weekly chart — and has seen an impressive 34 percent in growth on the month.

Ethereum Classic (ETC) and NEM (XEM) have meanwhile both seen 24-hour losses of about 2.7 percent.

Total market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies is at around $128.8 billion as of press time — up from $122.4 billion at the start of the 7-day chart Dec. 28.

7-day chart of total market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies. Source: CoinMarketCap

As reported yesterday, the over-the-counter (OTC) trading desk at cryptocurrency finance firm Circle reported a notional volume of $24 billion for 2018 — giving insight into the state of the liquidity of a sector of the crypto trading space largely used by institutional, rather than retail, investors.

In crypto regulatory news, the government of Ireland yesterday approved a bill that would give effect to the European Union Fifth Anti-Money Laundering Directive, which will impact cryptocurrency users.